Machine Learning in the Judicial System Is Mostly Just Hype

Machine learning (ML) in the judicial system has been the staging area for much of this debate, especially because it brings to the surface a host of insecurities, millenarian hopes, and nerd meltdowns, as well as some justified critiques over racial bias, free will, and over-optimization on the priors of criminal behavior. These systems have a lot of problems, from failing to connect with the basic goals of the judicial system, to creating perverse incentives, to falling into self-sabotaging feedback loops, to making the law opaque and unaccountable, to just generally being over- and mis-applied. The usage of a “social score” system for everyone in society is, of course, different from usage of a “risk score” system for criminals.

Source: palladiummag.com